At least 134 people have been killed and nearly 250 000 displaced in massive floods that have hit south-east Ethiopia since last week, taking a huge toll on livestock and agriculture, officials said on Monday.
As torrential rains continues to pound portions of the country’s Somali state, officials said 162 villages in 11 districts have been ravaged by the raging waters of the Wabe Shebell River, which burst its banks on April 23.
Twenty-one bodies were recovered in Somali state’s Godie region on Sunday, bringing the toll to 134 dead and at least 247 025 others affected, most of them homeless, in the worst-affected villages, they said.
They stressed, though, that the damage has not yet been fully assessed because the flooding has made the already remote region even more isolated and difficult to reach.
”This is not a final, clear-cut situation picture,” said Ramadan Hajji, the emergency relief coordinator for Somali state, 1 380km from Addis Ababa.
”There are areas we have not assessed due to transport problems and rising waters,” he said. ”The deaths may still increase, and so may other damage.”
Officials said the flood’s toll on livestock and farmland in the state has been particularly disastrous for the impoverished region, where many villages rely entirely on subsistence agriculture to survive.
At least 17 205 chickens, 6 922 head of cattle, 3 957 camels and 351 donkeys have been swept away by the water, along with 160 water pumps and generators, according to official statistics released by Addis Ababa.
In addition, at least 6 478 tonnes of cereals have been destroyed and 2 785ha of farmland submerged, they said.
Disaster relief teams have had limited success in reaching flood-affected areas and in compiling accurate accounts of damage caused by the water, which has been exacerbated by the appearance of hungry crocodiles that have devoured nearly 10 people and hampered rescue efforts, officials said.
The flooding began after days of uninterrupted rain in the highlands to the north of the affected area and hit most villages at night, taking sleeping residents by surprise.
Before the rains, the area had been repeatedly hit by drought, and the dried-up river bed was unable to handle the excess water, leading to flooding along almost its entire length that stretched across the border into Somalia. — AFP
